Millennium Now

Developed together with Channel 4, public involvement was at the forefront of this programme.

Through the Big Decision, the public told us where they felt £10 million of Lottery funding should go. We took this feedback and combined it with the results of an IpsosMORI poll, conducted with 2,000 people from across the UK, to help decide the five distinct project types that Millennium Now would fund.

Applications had to fit one of the Millennium Now project types and meet all three of the following outcomes:

Creating stronger connections between people and communities

Developing creative projects that have UK-wide relevance

Communities are involved in designing and delivering projects.

In March 2012 five charities received development funding of up to £25,000 for their project idea. A major Channel 4 series followed celebrities Gok Wan, Katie Piper, Jimmy Doherty, DaveFishwick and George Clarke working with the charities as they developed and test ran their projects, trying to secure up to £2m of Lottery funding.

The Millennium Commission awarded £2.7 billion of Lottery money for projects to mark the new millennium.

Over a decade later, this investment has had a huge economic and social impact and created a legacy that has changed the face of the nation.

We commissioned a report to look back at all the different ways that the projects have driven change thanks to those leading them, their staff and the volunteers who continue to work hard to deliver exciting work more than ten years on.